A. Field of the Invention
The device of the present invention generally relates to systems and methods for performing marketing research in a targeted test area and, more particularly, to a system and method for performing over-the-air marketing research in households having television sets in the targeted test area.
B. Description of the Prior Art
The monitoring of the activity of television sets in cooperating households for various purposes is old and well known. Typically, cooperating households having television sets are furnished with a diary to be filled out by those people who watch television in the households. This method has several limitations including lack of attention and human error in making diary entries. Other systems have been designed to automatically monitor the activity of television receivers in cooperating households, that is, the "on-off" condition of the television receivers and the identity of the channels being viewed, to store such information accumulated during an entire broadcast day in a small computer installed in each cooperating household and properly to organize or format such information for transmission at the end of a broadcast day over telephone lines to a central computer. Examples of such systems are set forth in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,651,471; 3,742,462; 3,742,463; 3,772,649; 3,973,206; 4,025,851; and 4,048,562. Such systems, however, lack flexibility in that they do not provide for the testing of viewer response to substitute programming, such as substitute commercials. In addition, such systems may only monitor television activity on a periodic basis, that is, time dependent sampling, rather than on a real time basis, that is, continuous monitoring.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,639,686 discloses an over-the-air marketing research system in which a substitute television signal is broadcast throughout a broadcast area over a VHF or UHF channel not being utilized by television broadcast stations operating in the area. In one embodiment, a control signal is broadcast that identifies a preselected class (occupation) of viewers to be reached by the substitute television signal. Those households having television receivers equipped to receive the substitute television signal and also having a household identification corresponding to the preselected class of viewers are capable of receiving the substitute television signal if the television receivers in the households are tuned to the designated channel. This system is limited in that the households in each class of viewers are fixed upon the installation of receiving equipment in each household and cannot thereafter be altered or subdivided without the installation of new equipment. In addition, conventional transmitters broadcasting the substitute television signal over a standard VHF or UHF channel with normal signal strength would result in an inordinately expensive system.
With the development of cable television networks, marketing research has been performed through systems that are capable of delivering alternate programming material to cooperating households via coaxial cables. An early proposed system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,366,731 and constitutes a split cable system having two coaxial cables emanating from a single transmission source that service either different portions of the same test area or alternate households in a test area. Again while substitute programming can be transmitted over one or the other of the cables, this system lacks flexibility in that it is the initial connection of a particular distribution cable to a particular household that determines the test group. The groups may not be changed unless the connection of the distribution cable to a particular household is changed. In addition, this system does not enable the subdivision for marketing research purposes of households connected to a particular distribution cable.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,331,973 and 4,331,974 disclose a cable television network for accomplishing marketing research that is capable of providing substitute television signals, for example, substitute commercials, over one or more unused cable channels. The disclosed system switches substitute programming for the regularly scheduled or standard programming in cooperating households by a command over the cable network. The system also is capable of recording at the transmitting end the channel being watched by the cooperating households. Such recorded data subsequently may be correlated with the purchasing habits of members of the cooperating households.
While such a system constitutes an improvement over many other conventional marketing research methods, the system is limited by the fact that it utilizes a cable network for performing the marketing research and by its inability to preprogram an entire substitute programming schedule for an entire broadcasting day and by its lack of local or household storage for recording at each cooperating household the activity of that household's television receiver during an entire broadcasting day. In addition, since the majority of the households in the United States having television receivers are not serviced by cable, truly demographic marketing research test results are not practically obtainable. For example, only the relatively affluent in a particular test area served by cable television can afford the monthly cable television subscription fee. Thus, only the relatively affluent could participate in such a marketing research system utilizing cable television. A need therefore exists for a marketing research system capable of fairly and accurately measuring the responses of consumers to new products, ideas and television program content without regard to the consumer's economic status or the electronic progress in a particular community.